Toubia

A short moment after Eudes Clarke departed, Lucian reached into the satchel on his swordbelt to retrieve the two badges he had stowed, pinning each to his breast once more.

With another look at his surroundings, Lucian pinched the platinum badge, an unnecessary action for such a well made item, and used it to feel for other platinum badges nearby.

Finding one quite a distance away, near the edge of his short range communications, Lucian established a connection and spoke.

"Tess? Are you busy?"

"Finally! I was wondering how long you'd take."

He smiled at the eagerness in her voice.

"It couldn't have been that long." He said without much certainty. His body which had just gone through an intensive battle, followed by the great fatigue of a precursor, once again felt full of energy, like he needed to run and exert himself.

"You were sitting there for a week Lucian. You didn't react at all to Mr. Clarke and I speaking. I was going to wake you but he said you were fine."

'A week! It felt like a day at most!'

"I see, he said you were off to find your own fortunes. Any luck with that?"

"Not yet. But I know where the Ghostly Pavilion is, Mr. Clarke pointed it out."

"Alright, just watch yourself. If anything happens make sure to use your platinum badge and call for help. It wont arrive quickly, but if you delay long enough it could save your life."

"Okay?... Are you not coming?"

He paused for a moment to consider, before shaking his head slightly, a gesture only he could see.

"No, I don't think so. I know we said to fight together but… I want to visit The Shards while I have the chance."

"I get it, I wouldn't have wanted to give up on the Pavilion either. Go ahead. But make sure to follow your own advice if things go wrong, I don't want to reunite with a scarred up mess when we return to the estate."

There was no hesitance or delay in her reply, and Lucian smiled at her words.

"Eight months then. I'll see you in eight months."

"Eight months." She echoed.

Releasing his grip on the platinum badge, Lucian turned to leave the way he had come. It was difficult to backtrack in this place, the fog limiting his senses as much as they did, but he did commit the path to memory, at least in places.

As he made his way back, he once more heard the sound of a phantom heartbeat and made to avoid it. It was then that a thought came to him and he stopped in place where he stood.

'Perhaps, if it's now… I could do it?'

Feeling for the Trueblood within himself, Lucian focused on the duality of energies within, and tried to dim the presence of his lifeforce, allowing deathfog to take a dominant position.

His blood still contained both energies, he was not transforming it, just having one side become dormant as the other took the spotlight.

As he did, the phantom heartbeat grew softer, though he could still hear it. He tried to follow the omnidirectional sound to its source by gauging the change in frequency of heartbeats, but quickly realized that the frequency did not change.

He had succeeded in masking his lifeforce. The carnation, out there somewhere in the fog, did not recognize him as a lifeform and so did not slow the heartbeat as he approached.

Ending the concealment, Lucian heard an audible change in the frequency of beats, and tracked it to its origin, stopping just before the edge of its alarm range. Hiding his lifeforce now, the carnation's heartbeat returned to normal, and he approached it casually, plucking the flower from the ground.

He could feel the incredible amount of lifeforce within, and to his surprise, a small amount of deathfog.

Stowing the flower in his knight's badge, Lucian ceased his concealment and began to walk with a smile, looking for the next flower, and then the one after that, and another after that.

When he finally reached the western Demian fort, Lucian had collected a large amount of crimson carnations, all stored within his badge. The same badge, along with the other, that allowed him easy passage through the fort, returning to the lands beyond.

Sunlight bore down onto Lucian from above as he felt his cultivation stirring slightly. He'd not been beneath the direct sun for roughly two months, the mist within impeding it slightly.

With a deep breath, he made his way northwest towards the great crater of Heavensfall, and The Shards of Truth within.

**

Imperial Emperor, Alram Toubia sat in his personal study fighting a constant migraine that haunted him for the past few weeks.

He'd lost a great amount of prestige as Emperor in the past few years, losing land to the constant Demian assault and making too many concessions. It's not like he had any other options at the time, but his vassals seemed not to recognize this fact and were hounding him more than they'd ever dared before. These past weeks, even the citizens had begun to spread rumors of his supposed 'incompetence'.

Looking up at the monolithic portrait of his ancestor, the Founding Emperor Gerard Toubia, Alram felt his headache worsen. Every Emperor of Toubia had to try and live up to that man's outstanding achievements. He had unified the scattered and splintered lands of southern Prokos, following the collapse of Great Lansha, conquering all but the eastern most lands that would become Nalduri.

Within one generation, he had created what would become the only force capable of single handedly standing up to the ancient Demia kingdom. But now, under Alram's own rule, that was coming to an end.

"No." He growled in a powerful, gravelly voice.

"Your majesty?" Horst, 5th dragon of the imperial crown inquired from his side.

"It's nothing Horst. Just an old man letting his thoughts get the better of him."

Horst, garbed in luxurious armor with colorful silks and a spear in hand, seemed concerned for his liege and opened his mouth to speak when the doors to the spacious study were shoved open in a hurry.

Horst almost stabbed the stumbling intruder on reflex before realizing it was Oswald, personal aide to his liege.

Alram had no time to berate his aide for his lack of propriety as he saw the bloodstains on the mans cloak, and the pale, worried expression he wore.

"Your Majesty, be careful!" Horst yelled as a thick blade, curved inwards like a dog's leg, spun through the air before stabbing deeply into the the aides back, knocking him off his feet.

"Oswald!" Emperor Alram shouted in his deep, gruff voice. "Who dares?!"

The Emperor's eyes shone with a golden radiance, filling the vast study that could be called a small hall with near blinding light.

Slow steps rang out as a man entered unfazed, leaning down to extract his kukri from the back of the now dead imperial aide.

Straightening, the man's face and figure could be seen. Blonde, toubian hair with green eyes, flecked with gold, and the handsome face and body of a man in his prime, disguising his eighty years of life experience.

"Who dares? If not I than who?" Duke Werich smiled impotently.

"Joseph Werich, have you come to die so soon?" Alram no longer shouted, his voice carrying a more dangerous tone than rage, but Joseph merely frowned.

"Die? No, I don't believe I have. Do not tell me you weren't aware this would happen. It's only natural. You cannot fufill the needs of your people, your vassals, our empire, or the Great Guardian. Of course you need to be replaced."

His final words were filled with venom, but it was something else that caught Alram's ire.

"OUR empire? OUR? You seem to have forgotten the place of a vassal, Joseph Werich. It is your line that bends the knee, it is mine that rules. It is my blood that forged the throne, and mine that shall sit on it."

With every word, Emperor Alram's voice grew louder until it echoed mightily within the small study hall.

Horst, 5th Dragon of the crown, stood between Duke Werich and the Emperor, ready to lay down his life in battle. Of all the dukes, if there was one that Horst had no confidence in defeating alone, it was Duke Werich. But with Emperor Alram at his back, perhaps he did not need to die this day.

"Horst." The deep tone of the emperor called within his mind. "Seek Alina and my children. I need you to ensure their lives no matter what."

Horst's eyes went wide as he couldn't help glancing back at his liege. Extending his will to respond in kind, Horst protested.

"Your majesty, the Empress and heirs are all protected by my brothers and sisters. Even the harem are–"

"Did you not hear your master, little pup?" Duke Welrich's voice mocked openly within the study, evidently having spied on their mental communication. "Scram."

"Go." Alram reassured. "They are in danger."

Gritting his teeth, Horst made for the door, staring daggers at Duke Werich as the man allowed him past.

The door closed itself behind Horst as he started into a run, a grand explosion ringing out from within the study as the Emperor Alram Toubia and Duke Joseph Werich began a battle the likes of which this world had rarely seen.

**

Having traveled at his highest speed, Lucian found his way to the Heavensfall crater far earlier than any ordinary traveler could hope for with the best of conditions.

It was said that the Heavensfall crater was the result of a mad outsider, overcome by his insight into the dao of Truth. The outsider came plummeting from outer space, crashing in western Demia, where his cultivation was ripped from him by the world to serve as nutrients.

This was the fate of most outsiders that visit a mortal world, no matter how far its transformation to an ascended world may be.

Heavensfall was not a restricted area like the Valley of Mist, and could even be considered a tourist location for passing merchants and travelers. There were no monsters, no natural treasures, no dangerous phenomena nearby, only The Shards.

So long as one did not truly descend the crater and approach The Shards of Truth, there was no danger to be had.

Standing now at the edge of that crater, Lucian was astounded by its size. While it would be a steep slide down, the crater was far wider than it was deep, covering a region so massive that Lucian could not believe it was formed by a single man… a single outsider.

He exhaled a long breath as he eyed the many twinkling shards he could see within the crater, like broken fragments of a clear mirror, they hovered suspended above the ground, shifting and rotating, some as large as a head, others the size of a whole bedroom. All in all, there had to be hundreds of them within the vast crater, each spaced quite far from the next.

With a small hop, Lucian dropped down into the Heavensfall crater, his feet sliding down the steep curve of its walls as he approached the field of shards within.